Day 360 – St. Johnsville to Ilion Marina, Ilion, NY - June 30, 2012

We have been travelling the Erie Canal with Bob and Ivy from Karma.  It’s nice to travel with other Loopers as it gives you another opinion about weather forecasts, possible stops and things to watch out for on the route ahead (it also gives you someone to share docktails with).  After discussions with Bob and Ivy yesterday, we adjusted our plan for today and we’re going to stop a few miles sooner than our original plan.

It was another beautiful day for travel.  It wasn’t too hot when we departed and it was very calm.  We got through all three locks without any incidents – yeah!  We locked through the largest single lift lock (Lock #17) on the Erie Canal at 40.5 feet.  But the lift of this lock is not its most interesting feature.  It’s most interesting feature is its door – on the downstream side, instead of two doors with hinges that swing out, there is a guillotine door that raises and lowers.  It certainly looks different as you enter this lock from the downstream side.

We arrived at Ilion Marina just after noon and got tied to their long wall in time to watch a wedding that took place right in the park next to the marina.  The afternoon temperatures soared into the 90’s and we are glad to be at a marina where we are plugged into 50amp power and can run the air conditioner without having to run the generator.

You will notice a new category in the statistics below (the previous two days have been updated as well).  On the Erie Canal we have gone through five guard gates.  The gates are very similar to the guillotine door we saw on Lock #17.  We aren’t completely sure of the purpose of the guard gates, but they appear on man-made sections of the canal and we suspect they are to help keep too much water from flowing into these sections of the canal.
 
            Miles: 17.2      Bridges: 8        Locks: 3          Gates: 3

Lock #16, our first lock of the morning

it was beautifully calm first thing this morning - the scenery along the
Erie Canal is just fantastic

more great scenery along the Canal

one of the gates we went through today - this one doesn't look like its
been in the water lately (based on all the non-water plants growing on it)

looking under a bridge to Lock #17 with its guillotine gate (which is
down in this picture)

the guillotine gate is almost all the way up, you can see the last few feet of
the gate showing just below the concrete wall

Lock #17 - the gate is up and we are headed in

entering Lock #17 - if you look closely, you can see the water dripping
off the gate

awesome rock formations along the canal

Julaine hanging out in Lock #18 waiting for the
other boats to enter the lock and get secured

another gate on the Erie Canal, this one a double gate